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ON
WOMAN'S DRESS
By
Sojourner Truth
(1797-1883)
This
short excerpt from an unidentified speech was printed in the Book of Life section of the Narrative, page 243, and is an excellent
example of Truth's mockery of pretension, where ever she found it.
I'm
awful hard on dress, you know. Women, you forget that you are the mothers of creation; you forget that your sons were cut
off like grass by the war, and that the land was covered by their blood; you rig yourselves up in panniers and Grecian bend-backs
and flummeries; yes and mothers and gray-haired grandmothers wear highheeled shoes and humps on their heads, and put them
on their babies, and stuff them out so that they keel over when the wind blows. O mothers, I am ashamed of ye! What will such
lives as you live do for humanity? When I saw them women on the stage at the Woman's Suffrage Convention, the other day, I
thought, What kind of reformers be you, with goose-wings on your heads, as if you were going to fly, and dressed in such ridiculous
fashion, talking about reform and women's rights? 'Pears to me, you had better reform yourselves first. But Sojourner is an
old body, and will soon get out of this world into another, and wants to say when she gets there, Lord, I have done my duty,
and I have told the whole truth and kept nothing back.
Ain't I A Woman?
Speech Delivered in
1851:
Women's Convention, Akron, Ohio
Well, children, where
there is so much racket there must be something out of kilter. I think that 'twixt the negroes of the South and the women
at the North, all talking about rights, the white men will be in a fix pretty soon. But what's all this here talking about?
That man over there
says that women need to be helped into carriages, and lifted over ditches, and to have the best place everywhere. Nobody ever
helps me into carriages, or over mud-puddles, or gives me any best place! And ain't I a woman? Look at me! Look at my arm!
I have ploughed and planted, and gathered into barns, and no man could head me! And ain't I a woman? I could work as much
and eat as much as a man - when I could get it - and bear the lash as well! And ain't I a woman? I have borne thirteen children,
and seen most all sold off to slavery, and when I cried out with my mother's grief, none but Jesus heard me! And ain't I a
woman?
Then they talk about
this thing in the head; what's this they call it? [member of audience whispers, "intellect"] That's it, honey. What's that
got to do with women's rights or negroes' rights? If my cup won't hold but a pint, and yours holds a quart, wouldn't you be
mean not to let me have my little half measure full?
Then that little
man in black there, he says women can't have as much rights as men, 'cause Christ wasn't a woman! Where did your Christ come
from? Where did your Christ come from? From God and a woman! Man had nothing to do with Him.
If the first woman
God ever made was strong enough to turn the world upside down all alone, these women together ought to be able to turn it
back , and get it right side up again! And now they is asking to do it, the men better let them.
Obliged to you for
hearing me, and now old Sojourner ain't got nothing more to say.
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